Non-stop to Frankfurt

By Katie Barreira 

For an authentic taste of German cuisine you could hop a direct flight from JFK to Frankfurt on Main or, simply stir up a batch of the city’s signature green sauce. Seasonal aromatics star in this fresh, creamy mixture traditionally composed of no less than seven spring herbs.

Hey Newbies!

Not only does this regional sauce bear the season’s characteristic color, its components provide green cooks the opportunity to get acquainted with a couple of key culinary techniques.

CHOP CHOP

All those fresh herbs are the perfect excuse to practice your knife skills, so get chopping! (Or just pulse in a food processor and call it a day.)

• A Good Shave - Picking leaves can be a drag. To make quick work of bunched herbs like parsley or cilantro, grip the stem end with one hand and angle the [fluffy tops] down and away from you; use a sharp knife to shave the leaves from the stems, rotating the bunch.
• Dry and Cut - Completely dry washed herbs before chopping; delicate leaves are even more fragile when wet, dry herbs chop more easily.
• Gather and Roll - Don’t chase scattered leaves across the cutting board! Instead, gather herbs into a compact pile and gently roll together for efficient, even chopping.
• Rock the Blade - Tools like the mezzaluna make use of the rocking motion that is most effective for fine chopping, but you don’t need to buy another kitchen gadget to utilize the technique. Place your free hand flat on the blunt side of the knife as a guide and roll the blade back and forth through the herb pile, never entirely lifting the blade from the cutting board.

Frankfurter Grüne Sauce

1 cup loosely packed celery leaves, finely chopped
1 cup loosely packed parsley leaves, finely chopped
1 cup loosely packed watercress leaves, finely chopped
1/2 cup tarragon leaves, finely chopped
1/3 cup chopped chives
1/4 cup chervil, finely chopped
3-ounces English (a.k.a. hothouse) cucumber (about 1/4 of whole), trimmed, seeded and finely chopped
1 small yellow onion (about 4 ounces), grated
Grated peel of 1 lemon, plus 1 tablespoon juice
1/3 cup sour cream
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
2 hardboiled eggs, finely chopped

Tips and Tricks

• For added authenticity, replace celery leaves with 3/4 cup loosely packed lovage, also referred to as “false celery.”
• Green sauce is typically prepared with the traditional European herbs, borage and burnet. But when’s the last time you saw those in your produce aisle? The good news is both have a flavor and aroma reminiscent of cucumber, so this is a natural substitution. I chose English cukes for their dense flesh, less watery than the ordinary cucumber. While English cucumbers are referred to as seedless, they do have a thin layer of small, soft seeds that are best left out of this recipe. A 1/2-teaspoon measuring spoon is the perfect implement for scraping out unwanted seeds.
• Whether it’s in a sauce or ground burger meat, grating onion is a great way to incorporate the aromatic without adding the crunch or intensity of raw onion. I like to use a coarse microplane, but a box grater works just as well.
• For a smoother sauce, press chopped hardboiled eggs through a sieve with the back of a wooden spoon before stirring into the sauce.

Serving Suggestions:

Toss with halved, boiled new potatoes; serve warm or cold. Mix with cooked, cooled short pasta, like rotini or penne, halved red grapes and toasted almond slivers.

For a Tasty Twist!

Deviled Green Eggs - Prepare green sauce without the addition of eggs. Instead of adding chopped eggs into the sauce, halve and remove yolks from 8 hardboiled eggs and reserve whites. Break up yolks and whisk into sauce; chill. Fill each white with a dollop of the herb mixture.

How to Hard Boil Eggs

Hardboiled eggs fall into the “hardest easy things” category. I often feel the need to refresh my memory before boiling. Here’s my go-to technique for the perfect hardboiled eggs – yolks just set in the center and no icky green ring as a result of overcooking. (Recipe courtesy of egg connoisseur, Howard Helmer, of the American Egg Board.)

1. Place eggs in a saucepan large enough to hold them in single layer and fill with cold water to cover eggs by 1 inch.
2. Bring to a boil over high heat. Remove immediately from burner, cover and let sit 14 minutes for large eggs.
3. Drain and cool completely under cold running water or in a bowl of ice water; refrigerate until ready to use.

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